Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other yesterday for the attack on a Mariupol theater that had been turned into a shelter for hundreds of civilians in the besieged strategic port on Wednesday.
No Russian airstrikes were carried out against land targets in Mariupol yesterday, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to the Russian Interfax news agency. “According to available credible data,” the Azov unit of Ukrainian nationalists attacked the building, which had already been trapped, according to the same source.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, on the other hand, blamed Russia for the attack. “Another horrific war crime in Mariupol. Russian attack on the Drama Theater where hundreds of innocent civilians were hiding. The building was completely destroyed. “It is impossible for the Russians not to have known that it was a civilian refuge,” Dmitro Kuleba said via Twitter.
There is no information about victims yet.
Meanwhile, a group of ten people were executed in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, while standing in line for bread, according to media reports.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied that its forces were responsible for the massacre, saying there were no Russian units in the city, citing killings by Ukrainian forces or a case by the Ukrainian intelligence service.
Kyiv also warned yesterday that a humanitarian catastrophe was threatening in the Kherson region, which has been taken over by Russian forces.
Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, spoke of shortages of “medicine and, in some cases, food” in the area via Telegram. He also spoke about problems with electricity, water and heating.
According to Ukrainian sources, several local politicians have been arrested by the Russian army. It was reported yesterday that the mayor of the city of Skadovsk, Alexander Yakovlev, and the municipal councilor Yuri Paliuh were arrested. Citizens demonstrated in front of the town hall demanding their release.
Mr. Yakovlev, in a video released a few hours later, assured that he was free and safe and that the Russians simply wanted to talk to him. The mayor of Melitopolis was also released, according to Kyiv.
The Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported that in the Sumy region (northeast) an exchange of prisoners was organized, with each Russian soldier exchanging with six Ukrainian citizens.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, some 1,000 Russian soldiers have been captured since the invasion began on February 24.
The Ukrainian army assures that the Russian advance towards Kyiv has been stopped. According to the staff, attacks in the eastern part of the country were also repulsed.
The Russian Defense Ministry also accused Ukraine of preparing to carry out chemical weapons attacks on civilians and blamed Russia for them, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Western countries, mainly the United States, accuse Russia of lying and intending to use chemical weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accuses the West of pushing Kyiv to continue the bloodshed by arming Ukraine and sending mercenaries. He stressed that Moscow will not allow Ukraine to become a springboard for attacks against Russia. He also defended Russia’s invasion of the neighboring country, arguing that “all diplomatic options were exhausted.”
He also referred to the unprecedented sanctions against Russia as “economic blitzkrieg against Russia” – apparently deliberately using a Nazi term, and assuring that it would have no effect.
US President Joe Biden yesterday called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” for the first time, calling the Kremlin “unacceptable” and the International Court of Justice earlier “ordering” Russia to immediately suspend military operations in Ukraine. , which most analysts consider quite unlikely to be accepted by Moscow.
Negotiations between the two sides continued yesterday but expectations are very limited.
Ukrainian President Zhelensky is expected to address the German lower house of the Bundestag today, a day after speaking to members of the US Congress.
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